Sunday, November 25, 2012

Loving the People of Pakkret!

Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2012 12:01Subject: From: bryan.todd@myldsmail.net

Hey! Happy วันขอบคุณพระเจ้า!!

Well, as ever I am absolutely astounded that another week has come and goneแล้ว.But as ever, the Lord has made it another great week! SO--here are a few of the highlights, just some of them, from this last week.

First of all, the Church building here in Pakkret was just finished right before I got in country. It was only dedicated a few weeks after I arrived in Thailand. It's located right on Chaengwatana Road, which is one of the biggest roads in the city, so there are a ton of people that see it. In Korat, we had maybe 20 people come to English class, so I was blown away when I got here and last week at English class there were 153 students! That was amazing to see. And there were about 25 or so new people.

Things here in the Bangkok North Zone are really going well. We even have an investigator from English class. His name is Arm. He's solid. He is really interested. He's studied the Bible on his own, but never talked with any missionaries or any churches. He's now reading the Book of Mormon and seems to be enjoying it. I think He'll be getting baptized here in December.

We also had mission tour with the Area President, Elder Kent D. Watson who visited from Hong Kong this week. The three Bangkok Zones all met together in the Chaengwatana building. Elder Patterson and I had to get everything set up, including food for 90 people. We ended up getting members to make food. Guess what they made? Not curry. Not anything with rice even! They made lasagna and peach cobbler! It was so so good!

But more than the food, the meeting was amazing. The Spirit there was so strong! It was all about the Book of Mormon and how it's important for us. We role played, inviting people to learn about the gospel using the Book of Mormon and had a section about how it answers the questions of the soul. The Book of Mormon is amazing. Think about it, while reading about Lehi and his struggles with his eldest sons, we see a parent struggling to help his stubborn children. Is that so distant from many parents lives? No. It's just such an amazing tool. It's the tool that the Lord has given us to gather scattered Israel home.

One other amazing thing that has been taught to me on my mission, is that God is mindful of His children and what they need. Twice this week we felt that we needed to make appointments with recent converts. Both times we did, it was amazing to see why the Lord had prompted us to do so. When we saw them, they both just talked to us about how they felt that their faith was beginning to fail. At a crucial time for them, we were able to go and to share the gospel with them and share our testimonies. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can save this world from the sorrows of sin. Only the gospel will be able to bring peace and consolation to the human family. I saw that manifest this week in the Bangkok North District.

Other than that, things are great! Elder Patterson and I are getting along really well. We have the same vision and are on the same page for what needs to happen. We are focusing on part member families. We had two long time members bring their wives to church yesterday. Neither of the wives have been baptized. So now we're working with them to unite them with their families so that they can go to the temple. That's why we find people. That's why we teach. That's why we baptize. To seal families and to prepare for Eternal Life.